


keep it together

by Soft_and_Warm



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: AU, Angst party, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 09:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16851580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soft_and_Warm/pseuds/Soft_and_Warm
Summary: "Vivi. Orchids and snow mixed with confusion and shock.Lewis. Purple and roses and ash falling.Arthur. Rotting yellow, being swallowed whole by the green and flesh.And now red, mixed with sorrow."What if Mystery, instead of following the boys, goes to the bottom of the cave to find the demon instead?A life is saved, in exchange for leaving another to be stolen.What-If fic





	keep it together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The MSA Discord Server](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=The+MSA+Discord+Server).



It is evening light, beams of golden breaking through the window when Vivi calls me. She smells of cereal hastily poured into a bowl, butter and evergreen sticking to her soul. I know what it that she calls for, but the hour is wrong. Panic and excitement sticking with morning fatigue. She hastily tosses me a strip of meat that I devour in one gulp as she quickly scrounges for her hairband. Overslept again? I wonder if I should start waking her up, barking at her until she rises. Maybe then she’ll be on time.

Vivi is grabbing some spare equipment and I follow her. Another hunt today, she starts prattling to me, some cave claimed to be cursed by a malicious spirit. She goes on about it for a while, shoving the last of her things into a blue duffle bag. Vivi has seen many ghosts before, yet these cases still grab her interest. Sometimes it confuses me, but for now I follow her outside.

 

The van is parked outside her apartment driveway, cinnamon as Lewis waves her inside the van. She happily throws open the door, and warm scents of past journeys gently reach my nose. My snow kit climbs into the front passenger seat closest to him, Arthur in the back stretched out and tinkering with metal and something crackling. He says something in greeting, and Vivi responds back with a cheery smile. I leap onto the seat effortlessly, sitting down neatly so Vivi can buckle me in. Although rather unnecessary, she insists. Vivi tosses her bag into the back and we are moving.

 

There is a new scent, although not new in memory filling the van. Red roses, and I don’t need to listen to recognize Lewis is flirting with Vivi. Arthur is growing more discomforted as Lewis alternates from keeping his eyes on the road and glancing at her. Roses are a comfort, but at this rate the scent will stick and I’ll be smelling flowers for a week. I bark at them, interrupting and they glance away from each other in embarrassment.

 

The dried desert silently blends into a thorny forest, as night slowly starts to get closer. The stench of worry is getting stronger. I look over to the source, stationed in the back. Arthur has stopped tinkering, instead awkwardly staring out the window. He fears the venture, as he always does, and I can’t help but feel sympathetic. He doesn’t need to be here, yet he seems to force himself to go for reasons beyond me.

 

Nighttime. Lewis parks the car in front of the cave, shaped like a skull ready to devour anyone who dares venture whole. Vivi seems to like it, fidgeting in her seat until the car stops, and by that point she jets out of the van like a rocket. The exit out of the car for the rest of us is quick, Lewis grabbing a torch from the back of the van and lighting it. Vivi is rushing inside and the rest of them follow, including myself.

 

There is something wrong with the cave.

 

I felt it as soon as we stepped inside. Although in this form, my senses were muted, the stench of supernatural is strong and bitter. The bad kind of supernatural. It swirled at our feet, of blood and the color green. My fur spiked up, and I contain a growl. This wasn’t what my kits were used to. As experienced as they were, they knew not of a true malicious spirit, one that put them in danger. Ignorance and innocence, they were at risk here. Could I warn them? Would they listen to a dog? This was a form of comfort and warmth. Dogs weren’t supposed to speak, weren’t supposed to drag them out of the cave because they knew something terrible was going to happen if they stayed.

 

I barked a wordless warning, and only Arthur turned around. He spoke of catching up, getting down on his knees to pat my head. He was frightened, yet despite that he lingered and followed. Oranges and sunflowers mixed heavily with fear and loneliness. If only he would turn around, speak to the Lewis and Vivi and get them to leave. But Vivi, her soul mixing with frost and curiosity didn’t listen. They pinned him as the coward as always. We continued further down into the cave, flesh and desperation and hunger swirling around us faster.

 

Lewis held the torch, the light casting on the sides of the cave, embers and ash. He acted as the pillar of the group, warm and comfort and pink making the people around him at ease. A bat flew out, and Arthur clung to him. Vivi walked not so far ahead, and she cooed at the area. But even her spirit of inquiry could not hide the scent of dread and fog that was slowly getting closer, the scent stronger.

 

Time was running out. Someone was going to get hurt, and I could not protect them all. I itched to stretch my tails, but I was hesitant to give up my disguise just yet. There had to be another way…

 

The source. I perked my nose up, seeking the hotspot. If I got rid of the source, I could banish the evil without being found. Although blue and disappointment would stick to her for a week, she’d be safe. My kits would be safe.

 

A fresh winter’s breath and leader surrounded by green, and Lewis and Arthur were taking a separate path. Vivi had picked the route on the right, the cave celling for the path hanging low. She’d have to bend down and move carefully, while I rushed further ahead. The copper was getting stronger. I would find it in time. The path led to the floor of the cave, stalagmites and green and fog thick. It rests somewhere near here, as I bounded from the path and into the bottom, swerving past the greyed rocks. I rushed, moving faster than this body would normally go.

 

Nothing. Nothing, nothing and nothing. Evened fog. How hard was it to find the source…!

 

Green and anger and whispers pulling away from the bottom of the cave. The scent was no longer spread out, hunger concentrating to somewhere else. Green and a rotting sunflower and tears hit my nose, and I recoiled back for a moment. Talking from the top of the cave.

 

Foolish. I was foolish! Arthur was the vessel the spirit was seeking. Possession. I wouldn’t be able to get up there in time. I’d be too late to stop the spread. What would the spirit do with them?

 

It seems my question was answered, in a moment of grief and desperation drowning in the sharp betrayal and shock. Purple husking into a grey was getting closer, and it was Lewis who was falling from the top of the cave.

 

I would not hide my true self any longer. The scent of roses would wither and I would not be able to save him like this. She might be able to find me, She’d hunt me down, but I needed my kits to be safe. I stretched out my form, the cave’s scents hitting hard from years of ignoring them at their truest and if it weren’t for my concentration I would’ve stumbled back.

 

Vivi. Orchids and snow mixed with confusion and shock.

 

Lewis. Purple and roses and ash falling.

 

Arthur. Rotting yellow, being swallowed whole by the green and flesh.

 

And now red, mixed with sorrow.

 

I spread out my tails, and leap.

 

 

_Arthur._

_Arthur pushed me._

_Arthur pushed me and smiled._

_Why?_

Most people, when falling for their life, tend to flashback, a reflection of all the major points in their life. Unlike them, Lewis was still trying to process the previous betrayal. Still trying to process the sharp impact to his chest.  

Lewis’ limbs were locked in place, what were seconds stretching and feeling like hours. The air tearing through his hair as he fell. His torch had slipped from his hand, the light reflecting the face frozen into a silent cry.

_Arthur pushed me._

_Arthur pushed me!_

_I’m going to die!_

 

Lewis expected death to be sharp, painful and quick. Or maybe not quick, drawn out as blood leaks from his chest. A horror you can’t escape from as the your very last seconds bleed out before you. Death shouldn’t be a sharp jolt, being pulled into fluffy white fur and teeth clamping on your vest. 

 

The shock from the falling was replaced by the jolt of motion, Lewis hanging limply as it finished his arc in the air, landing with almost no impact onto another cavern hold. Sharp teeth hold him up, and with a small thud he lands on his bottom.

 

“ **Are you hurt? Are you ok? Did something else happen to you?** ” A giant kitsune, with six other tails fanning out was sniffing him up and down, his nose pressed against his skin. Lewis said nothing, eyes locked on the red collar around his neck.

 

_…Mystery?_

“ **Lewis? Answer me!** ”

 

The exclamation filled with such tenderness and fright snapped him out of his temporary shock.

“I’m fine! I’m… ok, I guess. I almost died, but then you came in and then I didn’t.”

 

Mystery stopped sniffing him, staring at him. A heartbeat later, the kitsune was laughing with joy and licking Lewis furiously. For a dog that size, that’s a lot of slobber. He collapsed into a fit of giggles, trying to keep the giant kitsune off him. His six tails were wagging happily.

 

“No! Mystery stop! I just ironed the suit this morning, and you know dog slobber doesn’t wash out!”

 

It was odd, seeing a face of pure relief and love on what is a giant dog, but it was better than the alternative. They wrestled for a moment, before Mystery stopped and sat upright, looking back to where he came from in the cave.

 

“ **Let’s go.** ”

 

Mystery scooped Lewis in his mouth again, ever to careful to keep his teeth only on the vest. With one jump, he crossed the sharp stalemates and landed on the lower clearing.

The kitsune gently lowered Lewis to the ground. The man stumbled, and almost immediately was tackled by a flying blue blur.

 

“Lew!”

 

He was quick to wrap his arms around her, sweeping her up into a warm hug. Almost dying puts a lot of things into perspective. He would’ve lost this, extremely aggressive hugs that borderline professional tackles from someone who he loved with all his heart. He would’ve lost everything he loved about Vivi, and everything he didn’t. He would’ve lost her.

 

(Lewis’ grip on his love got tighter.)

 

“What happened? I was going through the path and Mystery is suddenly rushing ahead and then suddenly you’re falling and he turns into a big dog and _why were you falling!_ ”

 

Lewis clenched his fist, not letting her go. Silent rage started to bubble in his chest.  

 

_Arthur._

_Arthur pushed me. He tried to kill me and he would’ve if it weren’t for Mystery, I would be dead._

Mystery was sniffing the air, confusion and concern crossing his face. He unwound himself from sitting, getting in an aggressive stance.

 

“Arthur and I went up on the upper path, and he tried to kill me by shoving me off. I don’t know why he did it, but I would’ve died if-”

 

“ **Quiet!** ” Mystery barked, nose perking up high. He took a deep breath, sniffing the cave air, then ground. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration, but it shifted and went slack in fear.

 

“ **I can’t… I can’t smell him.** ” The kitsune turned back to them, panicked.

 

“Who?”

 

“ **It’s Arthur. He’s gone!** ”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, upload the next chapter of the multi chapter fic? You'll never take me alive!  
> Sadly, this is not going to be a multi chapter fic. Just visualize some shenanigans. 
> 
> A one-shot requested by the MSA Discord server. Hi Val!


End file.
